DOH Ilocos ramps up COVID booster campaign

A resident of Vigan City in Ilocos Sur province receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot. (Photo courtesy of Vigan city government)

LAOAG CITY—Health officials in the Ilocos region are trying to ramp up their COVID vaccination drive, particularly their efforts to administer booster shots, as the fourth installment of the national vaccination drive (NVD) was extended in the region until March 18.

In an advisory on Monday (March 14), the regional COVID vaccination operations center said in an advisory that the provincial and local vaccination operation centers should focus on “booster administration.”

The 4th NVD was supposed to last until March 12, but the latest advisory from the regional operations center showed that the Ilocos region fell short of its target.

As of March 13, the region had an accomplishment rate of 58.72 percent or 58,312 of the 91,636 total target. The region still needs to inoculate at least 33,324 by March 18 to achieve its target.

Dr. Paula Paz Sydiongo, DOH regional director, said the remaining NVD days would be focused on administering booster doses to those in the economic sectors and other individuals.

She directed all local government units to “push for the last mile vaccination coverage of the most urgent and vulnerable population.”

Dr. Gretchen Ranada, head of the COVID-19 vaccination team at state-run Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, told the Inquirer that her team had observed a shift in the behavior of individuals getting vaccinated.

She said people had become “complacent”, believing that they had full protection after completing two doses.

But studies have shown that “antibody levels” from vaccines start to wane after around three months, which makes getting “added protection” through an additional shot of vaccine even more important, said Ranada.

When a surge in COVID cases caused by the Omicron variant swept the region last January, many lined up to get vaccinated and get their booster shots.

“It was maybe out of fear,” said Ranada.

But the shift to complacency became even more apparent when cases started to fall in the region in February and when all of the region’s provinces shifted to COVID Alert Level 1, the lowest in the five-tier alert system, Ranada said.

Ranada said her team had included “pocket vaccinations” as a strategy, where residents interested in getting vaccinated and boosted can walk in anytime at the hospital. She said that vaccine supply is no longer an issue.

Ranada said urging the remaining population to get vaccinated and those who are due for booster shots has become a “concerted effort” of all hospital employees.

From the very moment patients and their watchers walk into the hospital, the hospital’s security guards remind them upon entry of the need to get booster shots, said Ranada.

The hospital had also been offering incentives such as “free-dental checkups and a 20-percent discount for dental procedures,” she said.

The DOH said COVID “vaccines continue to protect but are less effective at preventing infection or severe illness over time unless a booster is applied.”

Latest data from DOH showed that over seven million vaccines had been administered in the region with 78.4 percent of vaccine recipients, or 3.3 million residents, already fully vaccinated.

TSB